Henry Seeley - Lead Pastor

Our church here in Nashville TN started quite organically a little over 2 years ago. When we first started, we only had the budget for a smaller, cheaper console. As we grew, we added a monitor console, and then later a console for our broadcast mix… but the entire system was based on a ‘budget’ framework that was limited to a maximum of 32 channels. 2 years in, we found ourselves in a place where we were maxing out our consoles and frustrated by the limitations of our current system.

Having known Nick Burns from Forefront Productions for many years, I reached out to see if he could design us a system that would suit not just our current needs, but also give us room to expand in the future. One of the things I’ve always loved about Nick is that he understands the challenges of church production, and the fact that most churches run primarily on a volunteer production team - something that can quickly turn awry without the right systems in place. After several conversations, we both felt a Digico infrastructure was going to be the best option, so we settled on SD8 consoles for FOH and monitors, and an S21 for our dedicated livestream / broadcast mix.

Having a volunteer audio team whose experience varies widely from touring crew to studio engineers to college students, we knew this would potentially be a stretch for some of our team. The install support and service we received from Forefront was second to none, and the time Nick spent training our team was absolutely invaluable. We also found the Digico was especially appealing to our team, given its ability to load Waves plugins directly on the console - something that helped a lot of our guys feel right at home.

The thing that is most impressive to me about Nick and the Forefront team is they’re not interested in selling a product - they are all about providing a service, and seeing the process right through to completion. Their knowledge of the products they install is extremely thorough, so you know you are getting the right gear for your specific scenario.

The fact that we were able to switch out our entire audio system - changing out 3 old consoles and stage racks for 3 completely new consoles and racks - all between our Sunday night and Tuesday night services is a testament to the exceptional service and support we received from Forefront. I would highly recommend them to anyone looking for a new system!

Q&A WITH PASTOR LEE BLIGHT - LIFE CHURCH BRISBANE

1. WHAT'S THE VALUE OF HAVING FOREFRONT ACROSS ALL ASPECTS OF YOUR PROJECT - AUDIO, LIGHTING, VIDEO, STAGING ETC?

We would not do this any other way, having Forefront oversee all aspects of our AV project meant that we caught many of the potential integrations issues early.

When there were issues (there will always be some on a big production installation), we only had one company to call and they were great in working through things with us.

2. WHAT ARE SOME OF THE POTENTIAL PITFALLS THAT THE RELATIONSHIP WITH FOREFRONT MAY HAVE SAVED LIFE CHURCH FROM?

Forefront worked really well with us regarding utilising existing gear, this helped us work towards our budget and while it added complexity to the project, they were happy to advise and work with that restriction.

Forefront did not do it reluctantly but were more than happy to include the older gear in all their designs and planning and even suggested some ways to better use the older gear than we had anticipated.

In line with our budget we also relied on volunteers for about 90% of the data, audio and video cable runs. Forefront were happy to work with this also, giving us cable guidance, basic cable designs and specifications for what we needed.

3. HAS FOREFRONT BEEN VALUABLE FOR THE UPSKILLING OF YOUR STAFF/VOLUNTEERS?

Forefront not only helped us with the technical skills but also the culture and heart behind church production.

They understood our unique and potentially pedantic requirements and worked within those, while going above and beyond in the aspect of creativity in our lighting and stage set up.

4. WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO OTHER PASTORS, WORSHIP TEAM LEADERS OR TECH LEADERS ABOUT WHY THEY SHOULD WORK WITH FOREFRONT?

Take the time to meet with Nick and the team, work through a full proposal process with them, it is well worth your time.

5. WHAT'S THE VALUE OF HAVING FOREFRONT WHEN IT COMES TIME TO HIRE OF SOME ADDITIONAL GEAR OR EXPERTISE FOR SPECIAL EVENTS?

This has come in handy for a few of our bigger events, it was easy to work with Forefront even though they are not in our city regarding hire equipment. Previously we had not liked the idea of relying on delivery for hired gear but it has worked well.